


Sea Foam and Shattered Dreams

by Restekel



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Tony Stark Has A Heart, merperson au, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-06-29 12:14:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19830013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Restekel/pseuds/Restekel
Summary: Peter gets kidnapped on the way home from the theater, of course his dad has to get frantic.Aka the Mermaid Au that nobody asked for.





	1. Chapter 1

When you think of the world up above, you think of hiding yourself away in fear of being experimented on, the stories that parents tell their children to stay safe.

My father always told me that the humans only wanted us to make them look more superior. If they ever got their hands on us we would be at the mercy of them and their tools to extract every bit of knowledge from us and what we hold.

Every Merperson knows not to venture up to the surface, the common saying was stay underwater and you stay safe.

"Peter we need to go before the show starts!" 

Peter jumps when he hears his dad call him from across the room.

"I'm coming!" Peter yells as he puts his notebook away, adding a tab in the waterproof pages so that he can continue the book at a later time.

Tony shouts for Peter once more, just as Peter swims out of his room to meet his dad in the hallway.

Tony is wearing his iconic hat and glasses while his red and gold tail is wrapped up as to not draw any attention to himself, he told himself that he would never be like Howard when it came to his own son, he made sure not to look like Tony Stark, best tech designer in the city. He wouldn't allow his son to get kidnapped just for his foolish mistakes.

"Alright out the door kiddie, I know you and Ted have been talking about this movie for the past few years."

"You know it's Ned dad, and yes we can get going!" Peter says in delight, dorsal fins opening and closing quickly, Tony recognises his son's emotions when it comes to his tail and fins.

Peter grabs his dads hand and pulls him as he swims out the door of their home.

"Peter! I need the lock the door first before we leave!" Tony explains to his excited son.

Tony can see Peter vibrating in excitement as he purposly locks the door slowly to agitate his son.

"I know what your doing Dad, it doesn't take that long to lock a door!" Peter complains from Tony's side.

Finally Tony gives it up and they swim to the theater to meet Ned to go watch the new Sky Wars movies.

When the two boys meet up about 10 minutes away from the theater they start talking about the movie and how the CGI works to give the actors legs as they couldn't actually use humans in the film.

"Ok but what about the guns that they use in the film, they would never actually get them to work under the water, it has to be some kind of effect." Ned explains.

"And how they get the motion so harsh, I don't know what goes up there but they stick to the ground, I don't know how they were able to get those effects." Peter says motioning towards the surface of the ocean.

Tony laughs at the kids antics, he's explained gravity to Peter multiple times but he's never actually got the gist of it, Peter always said 'what's holding them down, but doesn't work for us, it just doesn't make sense' even though Tony knew the particle sizes were different in each area of the earth.

They get to the theater and order their food and drinks and go sit in the theater, the people of the oceans have never been able to make tech work perfectly with all the water around them, but with multiple attempts and many people working on it together after seeing a human with tech many years ago they have made a visible screen and sound that can travel though the water.

Tony was on the project many years ago to make a telephone that could work in their environment, it took about 3 years but he was able to make something that used the electricity from eels and plant around them to charge all the tech they used in the ocean.

This was the second Sky Wars movie to play in the theatre in such a short amount of time, it was so popular among the crowds who wanted to see humans and how they were able to move with two limbs instead of one.

Tony knew Peter was facinated about humans, and how everything worked above the surface, Peter read many books about it, and always asked Tony to take him to see a human with his own eyes.

Tony was always scared when Peter asked to see the surface, and always told him that it was way too dangerous. Peter always looked upset when Tony told him no but he understood what was at stake if they ever did go up.

Before Tony knew it the movie was over and they were all beginning to leave the theater. He looked over at his son and saw the biggest smile on Peter's face, Tony always loved when his son smiled, it showed that he was already a better father to Peter than Howard ever was to him.

"I'll see you later Ned!" Peter waved as his friend swam off towards his own house.

As Peter and Tony began to swim though the busy streets of downtown Tony felt a sense of unease, He instinctively pulled Peter closer toward himself and swam faster weaving in and out through other people to get out of the busy city.

Peter noticed Tony's sense of unease and stopped rambling about the movie that they just watched to ask his dad what was wrong.

Just as Peter was about to speak he was ripped away from his fathers arm that was holding on to him, Peter looked behind at the Merman who grabbed him.

He was big and burly with a shark tail, which usually meant they were apart of the group Hydra.

Peter began to yell and thrash around to get away from his attacker, looking for his dad in the process, Peter almost got loose before a hand wrapped around gills cutting off his oxegin supply and making him black out. 

The last thing that Peter saw were the goons pulling him into the nearest allyway, and away from his dad.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony was frantic, to say the least, from when he first felt the sense of unease, to when his son was snatched right from his hand. 

They were only trying to get home, but when they swam out of the theater Tony noticed somebody was following them, he sped up to try and loose the guy, but when they swam past an alleyway somebody grabbed Peter and took him into the alley.

Tony tried to follow, and fight the guy that decided that attacked him after he tried to swim back to the alleyway to help his son.

But luck didn't seem to be on the Stark families side as another person came up behind Tony swinging a metal bat right at his head, inevitably making him fall the ground in a heap.

"Please, not my son." Were the last words he was able to get out before blacking out completely.

\------------------------------------

"How does this work again?"

Peter slowly stirred from his position on the floor, he opened his eyes into slivers to look at where he was.

Peter noticed quickly that he wasn't alone, and that there were two men in the room with him discussing something over a table, when he got a better look he was able to see that they had a vial of something blue in their hands.

"I don't know man, but boss wanted us to kidnap the kid and inject this shit into him, so... we gotta do it."

When Peter heard the words kidnap and inject into him, his mind went into overdrive and finally woke up the rest of his body into moving. This unfortunatly is where he went wrong, as he was in metal cuffs, that made noise when he moved, which alerted the goons that he was awake.

"Lookie here Alfie, the brat's awake." Goon number one said as he swam over to where Peter was sitting.

"What do you want with me?" Peter asked surprisingly confident, only a slight amount of tremor showed through his voice.

"What do we want?" Alfie started. "We want revenge. Your father ruined our lives when he built his tech company, nobody wanted our tech anymore, the rage was all Stark tech, our company went underground and we couldn't take care of our families anymore."

Goon two cut in. "So our boss thought, why not ruin Starks life so that he feels the pain of loosing his family too." He paused and turned around for effect. "So we're not going to be sending a video to dear old dad, we're going to keep him in the dark about his son's whereabouts."

"He'll find me, and when he does you are going to regret it." 

"But what if you dissapear, right off the map." Alfie sneered while grinning. "Lets get our plan into action Jason, the longer we stay here the more time Stark has to find us."

Jason grabbed a large potato sack and started swimming over to where Peter was.

Peter began to thrash hoping to deter them, unfortunately it didn't work and he still ended up in the sack.

"You better stay still, or we will stab you." Jason said to Peter.

Peter listened and stayed still and quiet for the journey to wherever the goons were taking him.

Peter knew that they had made it to the location when he suddenly felt the bag float to the ground.

The men opened the sack and harshly pulled Peter out of it. Peter tried to get away from them but the grip they had on his arms were too tight to get out of.

"Don't worry young Stark, this won't be too painful." Alfie said as he injected the substace they were talking about before into Peter's arm.

It took a few seconds but when the substance reached his bloodstream Peter couldn't help but cry out from the waves of pain it was sending through his body.

"Oh wait, it might be more painful than I said." Alfie laughed at Peter as he flailed around.

"We better get him closer to land before he drowns, we can't actually let him die."

The men grabbed Peter and swam towards the surface.

Peter was unconscious before they even made it.

\--------------------------------------

Tony came back to the land of the living slowly, he sat up and evaluated his situation not being able to remember what happened before he blacked out.

First he looked around where he was, he was in an alleyway behind a dumpster, probably so nobody would see him, why would somebody want to hide him, unless....

"Peter!" Tony jolted upright looking around for his son hoping that it was only a dream that Peter had gotten kidnapped.

Tony swam out of the alley in a hurry, his head darting around looking for the mop of curly brown hair that he could recognize in any spot that they went to.

When Tony was unable to spot Peter withing the crowd he began asking the people around him if any of them had seen his son, describing him about yeigh high, curly brown hair, with a blue and red tail with spider web designs on the fins.

Tony gave up after the 15th person that he asked and began the short trek back to his house.

Tony unlocked the door and swam inside.

"Jarvis, search security cameras for Peter anywhere today." Peter was Tony's top priority, he would never stop looking for his son, so any kind of information that he could get as early as he could get it would help.

"Sorry sir, I only have footage from when you were swimming to the theater today."

Tony slammed his hand on the table that he was leaning against making the objects on the table float off a few centimeters.

"Where the hell are you Peter?" Tony cried as he fell to the floor.

Tony looked up when he realized something from the table managed to float down towards him, he glanced at the item in question and noticed that it was his phone, getting an idea he picked up his phone and dialed a number he knew would be able to help.

"Nat, I need you. Peter's gone missing." Tony spoke into the speakers.


	3. Chapter 3

Michelle Jones was a simple human being, she liked long walks on the beach to clear her head and read her book, she didn't have many friends, just aquantences from school, she may know them, but it didn't mean that she had to like them.

The beach was her safe haven away from the annoyance of the world, it was quiet and secluded from most humans, the perfect environment for somebody introverted.

She was walking her usual path down the beach to the spot on the rocks where she read most of the time, but something was different, it couldve been the trash left by some party goers from the night before, or it could've been the boy passed out by the waters edge.

It was probably the boy that caught her attention.

Michelle ran up to the boy dropping her book in the process to see if her was ok, she first needed to get him away from the edge of the water as it looked like he would float away if she left him there, second was to check if he was still alive and breathing.

She grabbed his wrist and put her two fingers against the main vein, she felt a pulse, unsteady but there.

Next she needed to see if he was breathing, she concentrated on his chest and watched as a shuttering rise and fall came to it.

She tried waking him up, nudging him and snapping her fingers around his ears but he didn't even stir.

Knowing that she needed professional health to help the boy she dialed 911 into her cell phone.

"911 how may I help you?" The tired but cheery voice came from the other side of the phone.

"I found a boy on the beach, he looks to be about 16 years old, he's breathing but I think he has water in his lungs, I'm on the beach at coney island, about 10 minutes away from the docks." Michelle recounted to the emergency services quickly.

"We'll be able to send and emergency vehicle to your location in about 12 minutes, please stay with him and see if you can find any identification on him." 

Michelle finally got a good look at the boy and noticed that he had nothing on him, she quickly took off her jacket and wrapped it around his waist.

She waited with the boy making sure to take his pulse every few minutes to make sure he was still alive.

To her relief the emergency services showed up 14 minutes later carrying a stretcher with them.

The two people lifted the boy onto the stretcher placing a blanket over him before hoisting up the stretcher and carrying him off the beach.

Michelle followed as the woman asked her questions about what happened, she told her that she found him near the edge of the water on his side, nothing on him while barely breathing.

Michelle wasn't allowed into the ambulance but she was allowed to visit once they figured out what was going on with the poor boy.

\------------------------------------

Sam Wilson got many weird cases when it came to being a nurse at the general hospital in New York, he's looked after people who have shot themselves with fireworks, gotten stuck inside things that they shouldn't be stuck inside, and many many fist fights gone bad.

But he's never heard of a John Doe washing up on the beach.

When the young boy was wheeled into the hospital he had nothing on him, he didn't have a name, or even anybody looking for their missing child.

It was like he was made out of thin air.

The team treated John Doe the best they could, nobody could explain the small scars running three in a row on each side of his torso, like they were neatly put there by somebody with a sick sense of humour.

Sam's coworker said that they looked like gills that closed up, and then laughed at how preposterous of an idea it sounded like.

The doctor, Steven Strange, told them all that the boy should wake up within the next hour, so all they had to do was wait and keep him on oxygen to help his lungs.

Sam grew inpatient watching the kid, as he was told to do so incase he woke up, he just wanted to know what the heck was going on.

\---------------------------------------

Peter woke up with a strange feeling, well... all over him, even down to his lungs, Peter opened his eyes and became confused as to where he was, he sat up quickly feeling some kind of lightness to his movements.

Peter heard some kind of talking next to him, when he looked over he noticed that the person wasn't floating as most merpeople do, looking a bit closer he realized the man had legs.

Peter didn't think logically and began to scoot off of the surface that the person had layed him onto.

He didn't expect two of his own legs to follow him to the floor.

"What did you do to me!" Peter yelled at the man.

"Hey, calm down, we found you on the beach, can you possibly tell me your name and maybe we can get you back with your family." The man said as he extended his hand to help Peter up.

Peter flinched as the man tried to help him up, then finally deciding he wasn't going to get anywhere without help.

The man helped Peter stand up on his legs, which was really weird when he thought about it, and really weird to try and walk for the first time, the man was able to help him most of the way up, but when he tried to take a step he almost fell flat on his face if it wasn't for the help.

"I've gotcha kid, let's just take it nice and slow." The man helped guide Peter to sit back on the bed.

"I'm Sam by the way, do you have a name kid? I can't keep calling you kid."

"It's Peter." He timidly said.

"Do you have a last name I can use to track your family?" Sam asked turning to the computer in the corner.

"Parker."

"Huh, Peter Parker, kinda sounds like a superhero's name." Sam chuckled searching up the name on the computer. He was surprised when it looked like the kids family didn't even exist. "It looks like your not in here."

"Try Stark, It's my dad's last name." Peter said with hesitation.

Sam searched the new last name and still nothing came up.

"You still don't exsist in the system kid, we could wait for somebody to call and claim you, or call CPS."

Sam was cut off when Strange walked into the room.

"Ah your awake!" Steven said walking up to Peter. "How are you feeling?" 

"I feel fine." Peter lied, he was still feeling the after effects of the poison, and the weird way the new environment felt on his body.

"I'm just going to check your lungs to see if anything is wrong, and then we can take action on what to do next." Steven got closer to Peter with a small silver disk that looked like it was connected to his ears.

Peter backed up a bit wary of the new device near him.

"It won't hurt you, it's going to check if you can breath properly." Steven backed off when he saw the terrified look on Peter's face. "Would I be allowed to place this on your chest?" 

Peter nodded and allowed Dr. Strange to place the disk on his chest, breathing in and out when the Doctor asked him to.

"It sounds nice and clear, Now.. Mr.Wilson, were we able to find Peter's family?"

"No Doctor, it's like he doesn't even exist as a person."

"Hmmm, I have one more question for you Peter." Steven asked.

"Sure?" Peter replied.

"How did you get the marks on the sides of your torso?" Steven questioned.

Peter looked down to where his gills would normally be and noticed that faint white lines were left where the familliar slits would be.

"Uh, I was in... An accident! Yeah an accident when I was younger, glass sliced right through me." Peter trailed off in an akward laugh.

Steven looked at Peter sceptically, but accepted the answer for what it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who!


	4. Chapter 4

"Ok let's go over what happened. You and Peter went to the theater, you guys were swimming home, and he got pulled from your grasp, and you ended up behind a dumpster."

"Jarvis can't find footage from what happened, and I haven't heard anything from anybody about a ransom."

"We will find him Tony, we will scour the ends of the seas to find him."

"It's not about finding him Nat... It's about finding him alive."

Tony and Natasha had been going through film after film for the past few hours looking for any trace of Peter, Tony would admit that these guys were good, turning off security and bypassing where they knew cameras would be.

"I just want him to come home." Tony stuttered.

"I know, we both do." Natasha replied wrapping her arms around the worried father. She wasn't one for hugs, but she too needed the comfort, she had known Peter for most of his life, and became like his surrogate Aunt, Peter had managed to worm his way into the depths of her heart, something only a few people had done.

"Enough of that." Tony stated. "We have to keep looking, call Rhody and see if he can help us with the search."

\--------------------------------------

"Alright Peter, we can't seem to find anybody related to you, or who even knows you, so for right now we will just have to call CPS and get you a foster home until somebody comes for you." Sam said after hours of looking for somebody that couldn't be reached.

"We have a wonderful woman who has agreed to take you for the time being." Steven added.

Peter just stared into the wall, he couldn't accept that he would never see his dad or his friends again, he knew he didn't exist up here, he just had to find a way to get his life back.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when a knock was heard at the door.

"You must be Peter." The woman stated. "I'm May Parkinson, but you can just call me May."

"Hi, I'm Peter, but you already know that... Sorry." Peter studdered to get the sentence out, it was just getting to be too much for him.

"That's alright sweetheart, this must be alot for you to adjust to." May acknowledged, as she slowly placed her hand on his shoulder like she was asking for permission to touch him.

Peter nodded after she spoke, eyes beginning to burn.

Peter got confused and scared at the new feeling that was invading his eyes. May seemed to notice that he was feeling distraught.

"It's alright to cry, you have been through alot in the past couple of days."

Crying, thats what humans called the water that leaked out of their eyes, it was a weird experience for him.

"Am I allowed to take him back to my apartment to get settled in?" May asked Steven.

"Of course, we just need you to sign him out at the front desk." Steven said as May smiled.

When she tried to help him out of the bed, Peter tried the whole walking thing again and ended up with the same results as the first time that he stood up on his legs.

"Legs still causing you problems kid?" Sam asked while rushing to Peter's aid.

"Yeah, they just don't want to do what I ask of them." Peter replied.

Steven came rushing back into the room with a wheel chair to help Peter get out of the hospital, they told May that they could borrow it until Peter was strong enough to walk on his own again.

"Thank you Mr. Wilson, and Dr. Strange." Peter expressed, he really was grateful for all the help that these people had been giving to him, they all were really nice people that just wanted to do some good in the world.

"You are very welcome Peter, If you ever need help with anything come ask me." Steven winked before he walked away.

May signed Peter out quickly and rolled Peter in the chair until they got to her metal box, he was able to stand for long enough to get into the seat next to hers.

May jumped in on the other side after putting the wheelchair in the boot of the contraption, she turned a pair of keys and the thing came to life.

"Is it going to explode?" Peter asked frightened as he pushed himself against the seat.

"What? Have you never been in a car?" May asked with disbelief trying to calm Peter down at the same time.

"No, we don't have them where I live." Peter admitted, looking sheepish at the new information.

May scoffed in confusion, Peter didn't want to tell them much about where he came from or what his family was like.

May began to drive towards her apartment, Peter taking in all the views of the human world, he missed his dad, and was dissapointed that he couldn't share these moments with him.

May's car finally came to a stop out side a large brick building, she got out, grabbed the wheelchair and helped Peter back into it.

"This is where you will be staying until we find your family." May said while gesturing to the building around her after they got into her specific apartment.

She helped Peter into the room that he would be staying in, and showed her all the things she got in preperation for him staying with her.

"I don't know what to say... Thank you, thank you so much May."

"It's not a problem sweetheart, I just want you to feel comfortable here." May replied noticing Peter getting teary eyed again. "What do you want to eat? We can have what ever you want, and if you feel up to it, I would like to know more about your family."

Peter never thought of food, thinking about it now he realised he hadn't eaten since he was at the hospital, and that had been a while ago, he didn't know what human food was like or what they had for option he allowed May to choose what they wanted.

They ended up ordering from the nearest chinese take out place, Peter had been weary of it first, but once he tried it he would admit that it was one of the best things that he had tried.

"Pete? Would you mind telling me about your family?" May kept asking the question, Peter knew he just had to get it over with, maybe with a bit of fibbing in some places.

"It's just me, my dad, and my mum, My dad is the best person i've ever known, he knows how to help everybody and just wants the best life for me, he has taught me so many things that have helped me to become who I am." Peter began to tear up thinking of his dad. "I just miss him." "My mum only met my dad 5 years ago, she keeps him in line when he has his self destructive habits, she's not my biological mum, but shes my mum in every other way." Peter smiled to himself as he thought about Pepper.

"I can see you miss them very much Peter, I'll try and help you find them." May stated.

\---------------------------------

Pepper swam into the house she shared with the two boys, she knew that they had gone to the theater ealier in the day and was excited to hear Peter ramble on about how great the film was.

She didn't expect to find Tony and Natasha in the living room with tech covering all surfaces, Tony looking frantic and upset, while Natasha was going through film of the down town area.

They both looked up when they noticed Pepper in the room, Tony paled about 3 shades.

"Tony what happened?"

"Oh god Pepper, I'm so sorry, I've been so worried about Peter that I forgot to call you."

"Tony what happened to Peter?" Pepper stammered swimming closer to her husband.

"He was taken while we were out." Tony sobbed.

Pepper was in shock, she couldn't believe that Peter was missing, she went through 3 different emotions before jumping into Tony's arms, she could hear Tony's cries over their missing boy.

"We have to find him, right?" Pepper asked.

"We will Pep, I promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudo's and comments make my day!


	5. Chapter 5

Peter spent most of the night awake trying to get a hang of walking, he wanted to go back to the beach to see if he could find anyway to contact his family.

He probably fell on his face more times than he could count, but after 4 hours of trying to stay up long enough to take a step he was able to take multiple steps at a time.

Peter was pretty proud of himself, he could get around on his own now, which would help him figure out how to reverse the effect of the potion.

He needed to get in contact with the Doctor again tomorrow, Peter had a suspicion that the Doctor knew about his secret.

But for now, Peter needed some sleep, he couldn't get anything done if he was not rested enough, he climbed into the bed that May had set up for him and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning when Peter woke up he began to walk to the kitchen, when a reflective surface caught his eye, he walked closer to it and realized how curly and fluffy his hair was when it wasn't under the water, he touched it a couple times to watch the spirals bounce up and down, Peter laughed at the new sensation of being dry for the first time in his life, it felt weird but nice.

"Peter I know your awake! Breakfast is ready!" May called from the kitchen.

"Coming May!" Peter yelled back as he slowly but surely make his way over to the kitchen.

May gasped when Peter came walking into the kitchen. "I see your legs are working again!" May said with a massive smile on her face.

"Oh yeah, I think they just needed to wake up a bit more before I could use them." Peter responded as he shrugged his shoulders.

The two ate in an unconfortable silence, May could tell that there was something on Peter's mind, and she knew that she had to leave him to tell her.

Suddenly as May was going to ask what was on Peter's mind his head jerked up and spoke.

"I was wondering if I could go to the beach today?" 

"Why the beach? I wouldn't think you would want to go back after what happened." May remarked.

It was the opposite for Peter, he wanted to go back more than anything in the world, if he wnet back he could have a chance to contact his dad.

"I thought maybe my parents could be looking for me in the place I went missing." Peter stated, playing with his food to keep kis hands busy.

"Ok then, I won't be able to come with you, I have to work today unfortunately. Do you think that your going to be ok?" May asked.

"Of course, I'll be fine May" 

\--------------------------

Peter first had to make a pit stop at the hospital before heading to the beach, he needed to test if Dr. Strange knew what he was.

Peter walked into the hospital, right up to the front desk.

"What can I do to help you sweetheart?" The lady at the desk asked him.

"I was wondering if Dr. Strange was around today, he said he would be able to help me with some things." Peter replied.

"Your just in luck, he went on break about 5 minutes ago and said that he would take anybody asking for him."

Peter smiled as the lady intercommed the doctor, she told him to wait in one of the seats off to the side of the desk.

"It's good to see you again Peter." Dr. strange said as he turned around the corner to meet Peter. "Why don't you come with me, I know some of your information is classified, is it not?"

Peter jumped out of the chair he was sitting in. "Um yes, it is." 

Peter followed the doctor down a hallway and into an office.

"I know what you are, and you have no reason to fear me Peter, I only want to help." Strange said as he locked the door and closed the blinds to the office.

"I want to know how you figured it out though, I hadn't even said anything or done anything to give it away." Peter replied as he sat down.

"I have been trained as a master of the mystic arts, when you were brought into the hospital I was able to sense the magic in you, that and the smaller things like gill scars, and being unable to walk, which would all add up to you being some kind of merperson." Steven stated.

"So you know why i'm here then." Peter requested.

"Yes, I can tell something is tampering with you magic, but I haven't figured it out enough to reverse the effects yet." Peter's smile fell at the information. "But if you give me enough time, I will be able to help you get home." Strange chimed in. "Go now, I know you want to go to the ocean, I will be in contact with you soon enough."

"Thank you Dr. Strange, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have somebody on my side in this." Peter said as he walked out of the room.

\---------------------------

Peter walked onto the beach, being closer to the ocean, and ultimately his home made him feel lighter, he didn't realize how much he missed his environment until he came back to it.

Peater walked up and down the beach searching for any clues of his family being there, they usualy never ventured to the surface, and probably didn't know what happened to him, Peter knew right away that it would be a lost cause to actually find anything.

"Hey, you look alot better." Peter turned around and came face to face with a dark haired girl.

"Who are you?" Peter asked.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Michelle, I was the one to find you on the beach." Michelle stated.

"Oh wow, thanks." Peter replied.

"Is there any reason why you would be back at the spot you almost died though." Michelle asked.

"I'm looking for my family, I haven't been able to find them since I washed up on the beach, plus just being here makes me feel more at home." Peter spoke gesturing to the ocean. "Is there a chance you were able to find anything of mine when you found me?" 

"No, it was like you appeared out of thin air." Michelle expressed. "But I can help you look for anything."

Peter smiled and they set off along the beach.

Michelle kept asking what exactly they were looking for, and to tell her the truth he didn't even know what he was looking for, just something that stood out among the rest.

Peter just about gave up for the day when Michelle spotted something in the sand a few meters away from where Peter was found.

"Is this something of yours?" Michelle asked holding up a necklace of his dad's arc reactor.

"Yes. Yes! It is!" Peter ran over to her.

Michelle passed the necklace over to him as he studied it for any damage, the necklace was important to him as his dad gave it to him for his last birthday. But it was also an emergency tracker in the situation that he ever went missing.

"Thank you Michelle, this helps me a lot." 

"It's no problem." Michelle half smiled, not wanting to show alot of emotion. "I should probably get going before dinner, maybe I'll see you again sometime."

"Depends if we cross paths again."

Peter watched as Michelle left the beach, when she was far enough not to see him, he walked into a secluded cave area and opened up the necklace, he was greeted with a small button, when he pressed the button it lit up like his dads arc reactor.

He knew he was finally getting somewhere, and would soon see his dad again.


	6. Chapter 6

t had been about 52 hours since Peter had gone missing, and everybody involved was getting more and more worried for the safety of the kid they had all cared for.

Rhody had joined them in the search only a few hours earlier as he was on a mission and had to swim quite far to get to the Stark resisence.

The silence was getting to Tony, he usually heard Peter somewhere in the house, but the silence that the house held was suffocating Tony, he jerked his head up from the computer screen and slammed his hands down on the table.

Everybody in the room looked up to see Tony after his out burst, he was floating above his chair breathing heavily.

"Tony I know your scared-"Natasha started.

"I'm scared, WHAT ABOUT PETER! He's been kidnapped and god knows whats going on right now to him. He's probably terrified."

"As I was saying, I know your scared, but you have to be strong for Peter, we will never find him if we loose our minds."

"Your right, it's just not right with out his constant chatter, I feel like i'm missing a piece of myself without him here." Tony confessed.

"Hey Tones, whats the flashing light on your computer for?" Rhody asked pointing to the computer Tony was sitting at a few moments before.

Tony gasped and dashed back to the computer. "It can't be."

"What is it Tony?" Pepper added.

"I got Peter a safe way for him to alert me where he is when he is in danger, I thought it was busted when we got seperated, but I guess he was able to get to it."

"So what does it mean?"

"It's also designed to be a tracker if he presses the right button, and he was able to set it off." Tony laughed with disbelief. 

"Why is it saying he's on the surface then?" Natasha inquired.

"That shouldn't be right, he is the only person allowed to get to that button, but... he shouldn't be on the surface." Tony was confused.

"We should check it out, he could actually be up there trapped." Pepper stated.

"Alright, we leave now, Rhody you're with me, I trust you to get us out of there if we need, Pepper and Natsha keep looking for leads in case this is false information."

Tony and Rhody left the house as Nat and Pepper stayed.

The two men followed the tracker that Tony brought with them and followed the signal until they came to the surface, they didnt have to swim far, they became more weary the closer they got to the surface.

"I want him to be up there, but I also don't" Tony confessed, he wanted to find his son, but didn't know what state they would find him in.

Thankfully the signal was coming from inside of a cave that had enough water for them to swim, and enough to keep them hidden if they needed.

Tony was the first to breach the surface, his eyes adjusting to the light of the cave, he looked around the cave, his eyes looked around until he caught a mop of curly brown hair.

"Peter." Tony sobbed as he layed eyes on his son.

Tony watched as his sons eyes opened and landed on him.

"Dad!" Tony was delighted to see his son, until he watched Peter stand up.

Peter ran over into the water where his dad was swimming and pulled him into a hug.

"I missed you so much dad, it's so confusing up here." Peter cried into his dads shoulder.

Tony didn't know how to comprehend what was going on, but he knew all that mattered was that his son was alright.

"Wait, are you hurt anywhere, what did they even do to you?" Tony worried as he looked Peter over searching for any wounds.

"Dad. Dad, i'm ok... well other than the legs, which I can't really explain, but i'm not hurt." 

Just as Tony was about to continue worrying about Peter, Rhody managed to join the family in the cave.

"Tones, we've got humans incoming-" "Holy shit, he's actually here."

"Hey Uncle Rhody." Peter waved.

"Sorry about this short reunion, but we have to go." Rhody panicked.

"Rhody." Tony spoke.

"Not now Tony. We need to leave." Rhody went to grab for Peter's hand, but he pulled back.

"I can't." Peter said as he jumped out of the water to reveal his legs.

"What the hell." Rhody expressed.

"I can't explain it right now, I really don't want you to, but you have to go now, I can already hear those people, and I won't allow you guys to get hurt when it can be prevented." Peter shuddered. "I'll meet you here tomorrow morning."

"I love you Peter, please stay safe, we'll find a way to fix this." Tony stammered.

"I love you too dad." Peter trembled as he kneeled down to give his dad one last hug.

Tony planted a kiss on Peter's forehead, and dissapeared beneath the water. Peter collapsed the rest of the way to the floor, feeling his eyes become teary before full out crying, he just wanted to go home.

Peter was pulled out of his slump when he heard a voice enter the cave.

"Are you alright kid?" Peter looked up at the person, he looked kind, and reminded Peter of his dad in the way the person held themselves. "Kid?"

"Oh um yes, I'm good." Peter studdered. 

"Do you need any help? I'm Quentin by the way." Quentin held his hand out to help Peter up.

"I'm Peter." He took Quentin's hand and stood up.

"Were you talking to somebody? Cause I swear I heard other voices in here." Quentin added.

"No, I wasn't talking to anybody, it was probably just my phone that that you heard." Peter replied quickly as to keep his family a secret.

"Arn't you the kid they found on the beach the other day?" 

"Yeah." Peter scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm also guessing your looking for traces of your family, I get why, I lost my family at a young age too, I kept looking for something that showed that they even exsisted, all I managed to find was my mothers ring." Quentin said eyes dropping to the floor, Peter knew what it was like not to have his family around, Quentin never had the chance to get them back like Peter does.

"I thought being here where I was found would allow me to find them, I was able to find a necklace my dad gave to me, but nothing of my actual family." Peter said to help the man understand that he wasn't alone.

"It's nice talking to somebody who knows what it's like to go through loosing something so important." Quentin looked over to Peter. "You should probably get back home, your soaking wet and it's getting late, you don't want to be out any longer than this in New York." 

"Yeah I should probably get going, May is most likely getting worried about me." Peter replied as he began the trek back to Mays apartment, Quentin decided to stay back, he said that he was looking for some kind of marine creature, but he didn't specify.

\--------------------------------------

When Tony and Rhody retuned to the house they were swarmed by Nat and Pepper asking about Peter. Tony was still shaken up about what happened so Rhody was answering their questions.

"Yes, he was there." 

"Why didn't he return with you guys then?" Pepper asked.

"It's complicated, but whoever took Peter also turned him human." 

"Is he hurt?" 

"No, there isn't even a scratch on him, he's fine, we just need to reverse the effects."

Pepper looked over to Tony, she could tell that he was really stressed by the way he was holding his left arm.

"Tony sweety, please, go get some rest, you can't help Peter if your too tired, I actually think that we should all get some rest, we know that Peter is alive, and where to find him." Pepper shushed Tony as he was about to say something. "I know you want to get to work on a cure as soon as possible, but what if your too tired to get it perfect, we don't want to risk Peter's life over some sleep." 

Tony sighed but knew his wife was right all of the time, and she had a point, he was getting tired, and his brain was starting to feel fuzzy, he couldn't risk getting the mixture wrong, it would most likely be fatal to Peter if he did.

"Come on, lets get to sleep." Pepper began to lead Tony to their bedroom, she turned to the other people in the room. "We have guest rooms down the hall if you guys want to stay the night." 

When Tony and Pepper got into their room Tony could see that his wife was truly upset.

"Pep?"

"I'm fine, just worried about our son, I can't believe the nerve of some people, turning somebody human just to break up a family... I just miss him, you're right, it's too quiet without him here."

\-----------------------------------------

Peter returned to the apartment later than he was supposed to, when he got inside he was met with a very frantic May.

"Peter, where have you been?" May came rushing up to him looking him over for anything."And why are you soaking wet?"

"I've been at the beach all day looking for anything that belonged to me, and look!" Peter pulled the necklace from around his neck. "I found my dad's necklace! Unfortunately it was deeper in the water than I expected."

"Oh honey that's great! but please try to be back before the streetlights turn on, I don't know about where your from, but when it gets dark here, people start to get hurt."

"I'll try and be home earlier tomorrow, I'm going out again to look for my family, I need to find them, I can't just loose them like that."

"Alright, but... I don't like you being out there on your own, I'm not your mum, but I am your guardian at the moment, and it stresses me out when you decide to be so reckless, but I understand that you have to find your family." May sighed. "Let's eat and get to bed."

May chose to make mac and cheese for them both, they ate in silence, too tired from the day to care about making conversation.

Peter finished first, said goodnight and went off to the room that May reserved for him.

Peter took off his necklace, just to look at it and be reminded of his family, technically it was a copy of his dad's heart, or something that powered his dad's heart, it was a comfort to Peter for as long as he could remember. Whenever Peter had a nightmare, Tony would place him on his chest for Peter to use the 'night light', or the small wirring noises that reminded him of his dad's shop. Tony had the necklace made up for Peter's 16th birthday, Tony knew as Peter got older that he was more prone to getting kidnapped, so he embeded a tracker that could only go online when Peter pushed a series of buttons.

It was still becoming his safety net.

Peter fell asleep with the necklace softly glowing near his chest, knowing he was going to be home soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think so far?


	7. Chapter 7

Peter had left a note out for May saying that he was going out for the morning, Peter left earlier than when he was supposed to see his family, but it was only to see Dr. Strange to know if there was a cure coming along.

Steven Strange was already in the waiting room before Peter arrived, he had been working all through the night to help get rid of the curse put on the poor boy, Steven had mostly figured it out but he needed to test his theory first.

Steven walked with Peter behind him to the office from the day before.

"I'll need a sample of you blood, it will help me determine if what I do will work." Steven said once they sat down.

"Alright, how long is it going to take though, I was able to contact my dad, and we were going to meet up this morning." Peter asked.

"Only a few minutes, I might even be able to do the spell so you can go home today." 

Peter brightened at the fact that he would be able to get home, and allowed Dr. Strange to do as many tests as he wanted on him.

Once Steven added the formula to the blood it started to bubble a bit before going back to DNA that Steven was 99% sure was Peter's original DNA.

"It works." Steven marvelled.

Steven and Peter made their way over to the caves where Peter was supposted to meet with his family, they set up the spell as they waited for Tony to arrive.

A few moments later a head popped out of the water, spotting Peter right away.

"Peter, hi baby."Tony softened as soon as he saw his son.

"Hi dad, I missed you."

"Are you ready Peter?" Steven piped up from the corner.

"Ready for what?" Tony asked getting protective of his son.

"Dad it's alright. This is Dr. Strange, he's going to help me to get home, he found a way to reverse the curse Alfie and Jason put on me, I'm going to be me again." Peter rejoiced.

"Are you sure it's going to work Strange, I don't want you doing anything to my son unless your 100% sure that it's going to go alright."

"We did multiple tests this morning to see how the spell would react to him, and everytime his DNA went back to the way it was before this whole mess."

"Alright, I trust you, but if you hurt my son in any way, you won't live long enough to get out of this cave." Tony threatened.

"Okay Peter, sit down on the side of the rocks. Thats all I need you to do." 

Tony watched from further back, he was told not to get in contact with the spell or it would go wrong, he still watched with fear for his son.

Steven injected the potion into Peters blood, as that was the fastest way to alter DNA. 

Peter could feel a bit of a tingle the moment the concoction hit his blood. It felt as if it was slowly burning through his skin, but also freezing him from the inside out, it didn't hurt as much as when he was turned into a human, but it also was not the most comfortable sensation he had ever felt.

"This is going to hurt a bit, but only because your structure is changing dramatically." Steven said before he completed the spell.

Steven lifted Peter into the water to help with the transformation as he knew that Peter would need to get water going through his gills straight away.

They waited with baited breath while Peter screamed during the tranformation of legs mending together, and internal breathing system being reorganised, his gills reopened feeling funny after not having anything go through them for a few days.

Tony vowed right there and then that he would kill the men who put Peter through the emotional and physical pain of this whole ordeal.

As soon as Steven said he was allowed to, Tony rushed over to his son holding him close, tears beginning to run down his face knowing that his son was going to be able to come home instead of being worlds apart for the rest of their lives.

"Thank you so much." Tony said holding his son close to him for the first time in days. Tony kissed his sons cheek, glad that his son was fine.

"I just want to wait until he wakes up, it won't take too long, I just want to know if there was any complications involved that we havent noticed yet." Steven said running his hand through Peter's sopping wet hair, he wouldn't admit it to anybody but he grew fond of the bright young man.

Tony and Steven talked for a bit as they waited for Peter to wake up, Tony explained that the rest of the family was further down in the ocean, they didn't want to be seen by anybody who had ill intentions if they ever met any of them, Steven knew what he meant by people with ill intentions.

Soon enough Peter woke up, burying himself into Tony, basking in his fathers presence happy to be able to go home.

"Good morning sleeping beauty." Tony said in a whispered voice. "Are you ready to go home?"

"Yea." Tony smiled at his sons sleepy voice, thankful that no damage had been done. 

Peter woke up pretty quickly after realizing he was back to himself, sitting up and smiling a smile that Tony would never forget.

"Thank you Dr.Strange, I don't know what I would've done without your help." Peter said shaking the Doctors hand as a goodbye. "Oh, would you tell May that I found my family, I don't want her to worry." 

"Of course, although it might be hard to fake the documents." 

"You ready Pete?" Tony asked waiting for his son so that they could go home.

"Definitely." Peter replied swimming over to his father.

Peter and Tony dove under the water, Peter trying to get used to the movements of his tail again was to caught up with the distraction that they didn't see Natasha swimming towards them quickly.

"Nat, whats wrong?" Tony paused. he tried to listen to Natashas muffled warning.

He tried to listen closer, but it was too late when he got the warning.

"TONY GET OUT OF THERE!" 

There was the sound of a spring being released, and the feeling of net.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't let it end happily could I?


	8. Chapter 8

"Peter!" 

"I'm right here."

Tony was frantic, him and Peter were being pulled out of the water by a fishing net, and by the looks of the water, one of them was bleeding.

Tony had no time to focus on the blood as he was trying to help Natasha, Rhody, and Pepper in their mission to release them from the net.

They were unsuccessful in their attemps to tear the net, and it was too soon when Tony felt the two of them breach the surface. Tony grabbed what ever he could of Peter and held him close.

When they were hauled out of the water Tony got a good look at the man responsible for their capture, he was wearing a green sweater, and a crazy look in his eyes.

"Quentin?" Peter gasped from beside him.

"Wait you know him?" Tony asked.

"He helped me when I was looking for you, I didn't talk about you directly."

"Oh Peter, Peter, Peter, so gullible. A kid missing his family, that so happens to wash up on the beach after the first mermaid sighting in years, I put two and two together, fed you a sap story to earn your trust, and figured out what you were planning." Quentin began to lower the net into a truck set up behind the rocks. "And now my life's work will be complete, to find a creature that nobody has every seen. And study it." He dropped the net and closed the top onto the truck.

They felt the truck lurch and the water splash them around a bit, Tony tried to look for a way out, but stopped when he heard Peter's breath hitch.

Tony using the only light available which was the arc reactor looked over to Peter.

"Hey, Hey. What's wrong, you've got to tell me kiddie." Tony rushed over to his son,

Peter looked up into Tony's face with the most heartbreaking look Tony had ever seen.

"It's not your fault, I promise. He tricked you into giving him pity, to make yourself feel better about your situation. But you have to tell me if your hurt... Please." Tony spoke quickly trying to reassure his son.

Tony looked down when Peter uncurled his tail and noticed a large cut running down the front of Peter's tail, which must have been done when the net grabbed them. Tony became worried at how much it was bleeding. Merpeople had enhanced healing to help the blood clot in the water but it seemed too big for that, and Peter was loosing blood fast.

"Give me your shirt, we need to wrap that." Tony rushed into action tearing the shirt into strips to tie around the cut to hopefully slow the bleeding down a bit.

"It's going to be alright, we will find our way out of here, I'm pretty sure that your Doctor friend heard all the commotion and will come to help us." Tony waited for an answer from Peter. "Pete? Peter?" Tony watched as Peter's eyes drifted towards him before starting to close. "Hey! Keep your eyes open, I can't have you falling to sleep on me, I need your help in getting us out."

Tony knew how to make his son more excited, and how it would keep him awake for the moment.

"Talk to me buddy, the more you talk, the more your going to stay awake."

"Hurts." Peter mumbled.

"I know it does, i'm so sorry that I put you in this position." Tony studdered. "If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be in this truck."

"Don't blame your...self. You've always.. Tried for me." Peter slurred.

The truck lurched again, sending the two inside rocking around once again.

Peter yelped as the cut was stretched. Tony rushing back over to comfort his kid,

Tony was blinded by the light when Quentin finally opened the top of the truck. He had an idea, and swam to the top.

"Help, please, your net cut my kid, and now he's bleeding out. I'll do any experiments that you ask, all I want is for my son to live." 

Quentin looked towards the bottom of the truck and realized how bad it had gotten.

"Bring him up, i'll help." 

Tony rushed down to grab his kid and handed Peter off to the sociopath that kidnapped them, but he was the only one that could help them in that moment.

Tony watched his boy get taken away from him for the second time in his life.

\------------------------------

Tony was transferred into a glass aquarium that was big enough to fit him and Peter.

Tony waited for hours for any knews of his son, he hated these people, they treated him like a specimen that didn't have feelings, but he couldn't tick them off, they were in charge of his and Peter's life, one wrong move and either one of them could end up dead.

When it turned to nighttime was when they finally dumped Peter into the tank with him, enhanced healing taking over once the blood had a chance to actually clot.

It didn't take Peter too long after to wake up, Tony wrapped him up in a bone crushing hug the moment Peter's hazel eyes opened.

Tony looked outside the glass and noticed the numorus scientists writing down data and taking photos of them, Tony glared at them, grabbed Peter, and settled inside the small rock cave they had set up inside the tank. It was bare, but at least it was privacy.

"Are you alright? They only helped your cut right?"Tony gulped.

"No, they did more." Peter muttered. "They wanted to test the healing factor, and kept adding little cuts all over."

Tony saw red, if he ever had the chance, every single person in this lab, starting with Quentin, would all suffer like they have made the both of them suffer.

"Will we actually get out dad?" Peter asked.

"Of course, we just need somebody or something that sparks an idea." Tony soothed his son.

\--------------------

Steven Strange watched as both merpeople were caught and taken away as a science experiment, he knew as a master of the mystic arts that he had to help his new friends, he had to get a group of people together to help him break into that lab, starting with the Mermaid known as Natasha, she knew a way to figure out where the lab was located.

Steven just had to make a few phone calls first

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel evil for doing this


	9. Chapter 9

ony held Peter close to him, no matter how hard the grip was on his kid they would always find a way to separate the two, no matter how many times Tony gave himself up for his son they always chose Peter to do their experiments on.

It had only been a couple of days that they had been held captive and Tony could tell that they would be in trouble if they didn't get out within the next few days.

Tony kept watch on the time to see how long his son was gone, so far it had been about 2 hours, before Peter was dumped back into the large tank that the scientists liked to watch them in.

Tony swam out of the small cave to his child the moment Peter hit the water, he grabbed his son and darted back into the cave.

Using the light from the arc reactor Tony looked over Peter for any kind of wounds that the scientists would usually inflict on them, Tony noticed that Peter's tail colour was getting dull, which meant Peter was getting sick.

"Hey kiddo." Tony said placing a kiss on Peter's head.

"Mm, hi." Tony could tell that Peter was tired, Peter became clingy when he was tired, and now was no exception, Peter was curled as close to Tony as he could possibly get, head snuggled into Tony's chest, probably listening to the hum of the arc reactor.

Tony held his kid, noticing that some of Peter's scales had been ripped out, Tony winced knowing that having scales pulled hurt like a bitch.

Tony stroked his hand through Peter's hair, to help calm his kid, trying to get some of the worried lines out of Peter's face.

"We'll get out of this, I promise Bambino." Tony cried keeping watch for anybody wanting to tear them apart again.

\-------------------------------------

Tony jolted up out of his sleep, he looked around to find Peter still curled in his embrace. From what Tony could see of the outside world it was night time, the only time that the scientist's weren't around, Tony gave Peter's shoulder a small shake to wake the kid up.

Peter looked around frantically before finally settling down after realizing that he was somewhat safe at the moment.

"They probably left food again, I'll go check, I need you to stay here." Tony said looking outside the cave for anybody watching.

Tony went for a quick lap around the tank and found a couple things of fish for them both, he hurried back to his son hoping that this would be enough for Peter to heal.

"Sorry kiddo, It's not much but it will help." Tony spoke, handing the food over to Peter.

Tony watched Peter, praying he would take the food, but in the end Peter looked into Tony's eyes and shook his head.

"Please Pete. Your wounds won't heal if you don't get anything in you." Tony pleaded.

"Please don't make me dad, It hurts too much." Peter sobbed.

"Hey, baby look at me, tell me where it hurts." Tony stammered, rushing over to Peter to look him over to see if he missed anything. When Tony brought his hand up to Peter's forehead he realized how hot it was.

"Are you sick?" Tony asked worriedly, becoming distraught when Peter nodded his head.

"Fuck!" Tony yelled, swimming back outside the cave to see if there was any way to escape.

When he looked over and over again, Tony knew that they were stuck with some maniac who enjoyed cutting up random creatures.

Tony swam back to his son and wrapped him up, trying to protect him from the cruel world.

\-----------------------------------------------

Tony kept watch all night, waiting for when the scientists would come back for more tests, Tony thought all through the night about how he could keep his son safe from the maniacs, but all of them always ended up with Peter getting taken from him.

Tony startled at a tap on the glass, he slowly put Peter down onto the floor and swam over to Beck.

"What do you want?" Tony hissed, trying to keep Beck's mind off of Peter.

"Your son for some more experiments please, he really is being a big help for our research." Beck smirked.

"Take me today... he's sick, and I can't loose him." Tony begged, praying that they would let his son rest just for a bit.

"Hmm, you make a compelling argument Stark-"

"Dammit, just do your experiments on me, why does it have to be Peter?" Tony slammed his hand on the glass in front of Beck.

"Because he's special, from what we've observed he's got more magic to him than any other merperson, he seems to have faster healing, more strength, better senses, and his core has something about it that we just cant place yet. But his scales are making us a fortune in the magic department." Quentin rejoyced getting a series of cheers from around the room.

Tony was horrified, if he had the chance he would kill this man here and now, how DARE they hurt his son and sell off parts of him.

"Let him rest, you can't keep this up long enough for him to survive if you don't let him heal." 

"Fine, maybe we can find if the special goes through the bloodline." Quentin frowned. "Alright get him out, the sooner we start the more we'll find out." 

Men all around rushed towards the tank, Tony backing up a little in habit, glancing over to Peter to see him watching with bleary eyes, holding his hand out trying to reach for Tony.

"Its alright Bambino, I'll be fine." Tony studdered.

"please, don't take him." Peter groaned, having no energy to fight.

Tony smiled before he was manhandled out of the tank, watching Peter try and get to him without success, screaming for him when he couldnt reach anymore.

Tony didn't say a word, worried that if he did that Quentin would go back on his promise to take him instead of Peter.

Tony's heart hurt having to watch Peter scream for him, he hated to make his kid distraught.

\----------------------------------

Tony hated these people, he wanted to blast all of them off the face of the earth, if this is what Peter was going through he would find a way to make all of the people responsible suffer the way they had made Peter and him suffer.

So far he had been cut open, electrocuted, checked over by a wizard, poked and prodded.

No wonder Peter was sick, they barely disenfected anything, or cleaned cuts with something to stop infection, and the water they were living in didn't help either, it was stale and hard to breathe in, nothing would help Peter get better unless they got home.

It seemed like they had enough of Tony when he was being lifted back into the tank, he got rid of the dizziness threatening to overtake him before rushing back over to Peter.

Tony looked into the cave spotting Peter right away, Tony swam calmly over to his son before settling down next to him and trying to get him to wake up so that he could check on Peter's condition.

"Hey baby, how are you doing?" Tony whispered stroking Peters hair as he woke up.

"I wanna to go home."Peter mumbled.

"I do too sweetheart, we'll get out of her soon and get you better." Tony could feel Peter falling to sleep with his head on Tony's lap, Tony smiled as it brought back memories to movie night.

"I found my necklace." Peter murmured holding up the object as Tony thought he was asleep. When Tony was able to comprehend the words, he let out a gasp. 

Tony took the necklace out of Peter's grasp and activated it.

It was their only chance of getting out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry


	10. Chapter 10

All Steven wanted to do was help, but he managed to make matters worse, he didn't listen to the feeling he had before the spell, he thought it was just his nerves on if the spell was going to turn out correct.

It had been much worse than a bad spell, the spell went right, but when Peter and Tony started swimming away they had gotten caught in a net.

Steven stayed low hoping to catch a glimpse of the liscence plate to try and track where it was going to go, unfortunatly the truck was parked in the wrong direction for him to even see what the sumbers were.

Steven tried to think of what he could do to help the family, when a red headed mermaid breached the surface.

"Can you help them?" She stated.

"I can try, I just need a location." Steven responded. "And probably a team."

Natasha, that was her name, told him that she would find the location if he found the team, he knew exactly the people, they were enhanced, and managed to stop corporations like this before.

It took Steven a day to try and get the right people together, they were rather hard to find.

In the end he gathered Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Wanda Maximoff.

"Why are we here Steven, we can't be called every time you have a minor inconvenience." Steve spoke up gesturing to the rest of the group.

"Two people I know have been kidnapped by some scientists, they are being experimented on, I won't be able to get them out on my own, but we also have to wait until we have their location." Steven reported.

"Who is it, is it your family?" Clint asked worriedly.

"No, they... arn't from our part of the world, and I promised that I would help them." Steven explained.

"Then why are we on the beach? Not complaining or anything." Sam asked.

"Because we have to meet somebody here who will help." Steven responded.

They came up to the caves that became the meeting spot between the two different worlds, Steven had been waiting 3 days for Natasha to come back with the information on how to find Peter and Tony, Steven went in and waited.

Steven raised his head when he heard the splashing of water from infront of him.

"Hello Natasha." Steven said while everybody else gasped at her.

"Hi Steven, we were able to track where they are being kept, now bring them home." Natasha replied. "And you guys, stop staring, it's not nice." She glared before going back under the water.

"Alright, we've got a location, let's go on a rescue mission." Steven commanded walking out of the caves.

"Hold up, was that a mermaid?" Clint asked.

"Yep, and her friends are the ones in trouble, I wouldn't get on her bad side though, she can get pretty nasty." Steven replied.

Steven continued to walk ahead, speeding up to try and get to the vehicle as soon as he possibly could.

Everybody else ran to get to the vehicle before Steve drove towards the location.

\--------------------------------------

The group had suited up, getting ready for a mission, Steven had congured enough water in the back of the truck to get Peter and Tony back into the ocean, he had tried to make a portal into the lab to get them out sooner but it seemed to have some kind of block on any of his magic.

They snuck through the back instead of blasting through the front of the building, they didn't want to alert anybody until after the rescue, they couldn't risk the safety of Peter and Tony.

They knew they had to go in the middle of the night, less likely to be seen then, and easier to get the merpeople out.

"Alright here's what happening, we go through all the way to the front where they are keeping Peter and Tony, Wanda you use you magic to get them to the truck, while the rest of us disable security and people lurking around." Steven ordered, they all noded their heads and got into action.

They walked around the lab with stealth, only running into a couple of guards and scientists that had stayed behind.

Steven followed his instinct when it came to tracing down the merpeople in the building, he just needed to feel for Peter's magic, it was dull but it was there.

They came to a large room, with loads of machinery, Steven could feel the waves of anxiety radiating off of Wanda, that wasn't his biggest concern at the moment though.

He focused back on the task at hand, and knew that they were close to the father son duo, if his calculations were correct they were in the next room over. 

Guiding the team to the room where Peter and Tony were beng kept he glanced through the room for anybody and noticed Beck, watching the tank.

"Strange, who is that?" Steve asked

"Quentin Beck, he's a psychopath and a manipulator, he's the one that kidnapped the two." Steven replied. "Wanda I need you to knock him out from here, if he sees us it's over." 

Wanda nodded and used her powers to get Beck to pass out.

The group rushed into the room, Steven running up to the tank to look for Peter and Tony, he saw a small amount of Tony's tail that wasn't able to fit in the cave.

"Tony? Peter? We're getting you guys out of here." Steven insisted. 

\--------------------------------------

Tony held onto his son for as long as he could, trying to help the nightmares that plagued his kids dreams.

Quentin enjoyed coming up to the tank to try and make them feel guilty to give away more information, Tony stayed in the cave listening to Peter's breathing instead, thats all that he could do, was listen, and pray that it wouldn't stop.

Suddenly when Tony had enough of Beck talking to them it haulted, almost like when somebody paused music.

Tony perked up, listening for what would happen next, was it rescue? Or more humans wating to experiment?

"Tony? Peter? We're getting you guys out of here." 

Tony knew that voice, it was the wizard that helped his son earlier in the week, Tony took a look at Peter before swimming out of the cave to see Strange and some other humans that had joined him.

"Tony, we have to get you out of here soon, the guards will realize that Beck is not responding to their radios soon." Steven said.

"Hey there, I'm Clint, we have this mostly covered, we just need to get you guys to our truck and we're home free."

Tony looked back over to the cave where Peter was sleeping, they had their chance to get out, Tony was only worried that the transportation would hurt Peter too much.

"How smooth will the transportation be?" Tony asked hesitantly.

"Unless we run into anybody, you won't really feel it until we get to the truck." Steve replied.

"Tony is something wrong?" Steven inquired.

"It's Peter, what ever they did to him has gotten infected, I don't know what will happen if he's moved too much." Tony gulped.

"We can make a pit stop at the hospital, we can get rid of the infection, but we won't be able to do anything unless we leave within the next minute." Sam said pointing to the doctor and himself.

"Alright, I'll go grab Pete, and we can get going." Tony stated before swimming back to Peter. "Hey kiddo, we're getting out, I need your help though, I can't get you out on my own." 

Peter woke up a bit more taking a bit of weight off of Tony, when they got into the light Tony realized how pale Peter was.

"Just a bit further baby, we can get help." 

Tony finally got back over to the group, they all looked stricken with the kid in front of them even if they didn't know him.

"Wanda." Steven commanded.

Wanda nodded her head and worked her magic to lift the two into the air incased in a bubble with some water so that they wouldn't get unconfortable.

They made their way to the back of the lab where the truck was located, it seemed too easy in Stevens opinion but he would take what he could get.

They got to the truck and secured Peter and Tony in the back before driving to Steven's house.

He had to argue with Sam about that one, he couldnt bring a magical being to the hospital in front of a ton of people.

They got there relatively quickly, rushing to the back where Tony and Peter were being kept.

Steven opened up the back, Tony holding onto Peter as if he would slip through his fingers and turn to dust in front of him.

Wanda used some more of her magic to help get them into the house, placing Peter on a bed, while putting Tony in the bathtub adjacent to the bedroom.

Wanda, Clint, and Steve rushed to get some wet towels to drape over Peter to make sure he didn't dry out while Steven and Sam fought to get the infection under control.

After about an hour Peter woke up.

"Dad?" Peter mumbled.

"Right here kiddo, don't freak out, we're alright." Tony answered, asking Steve to grab him a wheelchair to get over to Peter.

Tony worked his way over to Peter and grabbed his hand.

"Im here baby, we're ok." Tony said stroking Peter's hand with his thumb.

"Are we free?" Peter muttered, gripping Tony's hand tighter.

"We're almost home, just have to get you well enough to travel." 

Tony looked over to Steven to ask how long it would take for them to finally get home.

"About a day, we just need him to wake up more, and gain enough strength."

"You hear that Pete? We'll be able to see mum, and Aunty Nat, Uncle Rhody, and Uncle Happy tomorrow." Tony whispered as his hand smoothed Peter's hair down.

"Im sorry dad." Peter studdered.

"What for Banbino?" Tony asked.

"I got you into this mess, if I had just fought back harder or trusted my senses you wouldn't be here." Peter sobbed.

"Pete? This wasn't on you, and at least we're together now, and we get to go home." Tony said as his eyes began to sting. "Now try to get some more sleep, I'll be here when you wake up." Tony kissed Peter on his forehead as Peter closed his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go before it's finished!


	11. Chapter 11

Peter woke up feeling better than he had in the past week, when he looked to see where he was he realized he was in a human house. Peter looked next to him and saw that his dad was fast asleep holding Peter's hand.

"Good morning Peter." Steven walked in.

"Morning Dr. Strange." Peter replied.

"How are you feeling this morning, ready to go home?" 

"Definitely, I don't want to wake him, but we also should get going before Aunty Nat kills us for being gone for too long." Peter laughed before breaking out into a fit of coughs.

Tony startled awake at the sound of Peter's coughing, he knew that it was from the stale water then the air in his gills, Tony pat Peter's back to get him to breath.

"We really should get going Strange, thank you for helping us, we'll let you know soon how things are." Tony said.

"Of course Stark, I'll go get the rest of the team to get you back to the ocean." Steven replied as he stood up to go alert the others that they needed to get the merpeople back home.

Wanda carefully got the two into the back of the truck, before they drove the short distance to the ocean.

Steven made sure to look around first before opening the truck, they couldn't have a disaster like last time.

When he gave the all clear everybody got their butts into gear to help get them into the ocean.

Wanda used her magic once more to get them out of the truck and into the ocean while Steve, Sam, and Clint kept a lookout for any other human beings.

The transfer was quick, and before any of them knew it Peter and Tony were back in the ocean.

"Thank you everybody for your help... We wouldn't have made it out of the lab without any of you, and we are very greatful for what you have done for us." Tony said, helping Peter who was getting more and more tired by the second. "I would make this goodbye longer if I had the time, but I need to get Peter home before he passes out on me." And just like that they were gone.

Tony swam slowly, just to give Peter the time to keep up, it felt refreshing being back in their home, Tony never realized how much he missed it, he couldn't wait to see his wife, and their house, and their beds.

It took longer than Tony wanted but they finally made it back to the house, by the time they made it to the door Peter was half asleep in Tony's arms.

"We're here kiddo." Tony spoke, squeezing Peter's shoulder.

"Home." Peter whispered.

Tony opened to door, the first thing he saw was his wife's distraught face.

"Tony! Peter!" Pepper cried out swimming over to give her boys a big hug. "Are you both ok, do you need me to get anything?"

"Pete just needs some rest and some bandages."

Tony and Pepper both helped to get Peter over to his bed, Peter fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"Is he alright Tony? I've never seen him this tired." Pepper asked.

"We got through the worst of it, it was pretty scary for a bit there, but we both made it out alive."

Natasha and Happy both rushed into the room hearing the commotion.

"Your back." Happy said in disbalief.

"Heya Hap." Tony smiled.

Happy swam over and crushed Tony in a hug.

"It's nice to see you." Happy spoke, swimming away.

"I see that Strange was able to find you guys alright." Natasha smirked giving Tony a punch on his arm. She left with Happy to give the family some time together.

Tony took Pepper's hand into his own and pulled her onto the large couch off to the side of Peter's room.

"I'm not leaving him alone any time soon." Tony laughed.

"Good, cause neither am I." Pepper replied.

\------------------------------------

It took a while for Peter to fully recover, his scales were still a little duller two weeks after the event, but he was feeling much better, the infection had gone away, it took time, and effort to stop the infection from spreading, but they managed to get rid of it.

Peter had recountered with Ned about what he learned about the surface people, and how great the food was up there.

Steven dropped off a couple of notes to Michelle and May, Peter had asked him to give the peices of paper to the two telling them that he was safe and was able to find his family.

Peter still got tired quickly, and had a hard time staying awake for most of the day, but it was an approvement to the first week after he had gotten home.

Tony stayed true to his word about not leaving him alone, Peter had slept in Tony and Pepper's room every night since his return, he told himself it was for his dad's sake, but really he just needed his family to get rid of the nightmares.

Tony looked into Quentins therorys on how Peter was more advanced than the rest of them, apparently he had gotten bit by a small spider a few months ago that was just floating on a leaf when Peter went to check out the surface.

Tony and Peter visited their new friends every once in a while, they knew that they were safe around them, and it was nice talking to them and bringing them stuff from in the ocean to share with them.

Michelle found out about Peter being a merperson soon after the first meeting, she told him that she had her suspicions, and only wanted to get to know him better.

\---------------------------------------------

Peter jolted up in bed, looking around for his dad's arc reactor, before realizing that he was in his own bed.

Peter began to freak out, he dreamed that he was back in the lab, fighting for his life while his dad was being taken away again.

"Pete, you need to breath. Follow my breathing." Peter did and looked up into his dads eyes. "There you go kiddo, I've got you." Tony said clutching Peter in his arms.

"Does it ever get easier?" Peter asked.

"The nightmares dont, but handling them does, your the strongest person I know Peter, I know that you will fight what ever demons your fighting in your head every day." Tony replied kissing Peter on his cheek. "Just know that I love you... That everybody around you loves you and would stop at nothing to have you here safe." 

"I love you too dad." Peter mumbled, attention focused on the arc reactor.

Tony held Peter in his lap until the two of them fell asleep together, feeling safer than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished! I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, 
> 
> I dont know what prompted me to actually create this but here it is.  
> Hopefully you guys enjoyed it!


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